Live Music This Week: Atmosphere, Bells Atlas, NOFX, and More

Thank goodness for the Dodos. Six albums into a still-young career, The Dodos represent one of the most encouraging indie rock success stories of the past decade in San Francisco. The duo’s most recent record, Individ, was yet another feather in the cap for the band and the area — a bold statement that, despite our rapidly changing socioeconomics, culture cannot be erased in one fell swoop. The album, produced here in the city at Tiny Telephone, was hailed by the AV Club as a “kinetic marvel … adding a welcome sense of without-a-net adventurousness.” Seriously, we don’t want to imagine San Francisco without the Dodos.

Los Angeles noise-electro rock band HEALTH has little interest in conforming to standards of any sort. Expect the unexpected, or as DIY Mag wrote wrote about their most recent album Death Magic: “How the listener takes Death Magic defines everything, but once again, even at their most open and exposed HEALTH completely defy definition.” The band describes its genre as “new wave tribalism,” another hint that function beats form in their working ideology.

Oakland, meet your new queens and kings of soul: Bells Atlas. The East Bay Afro-indie soul group summons a sprawling number of genres and influences in ever-compelling fashion. Catch the group at Leo’s before they conquer the world (seriously, that’s not a far-fetched statement). Peep a sneak peek:

The impossibly influential Fat Wreck Chords celebrates its 25th Anniversary with some of the label's greatest names and flag-carriers. NOFX headlines a brilliant list of punk bands born from the label’s punk incubator: Sick Of It All, Strung Out, Swingin Utters, Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, Bracket, Western Addiction, Night Birds, toyGuitar, Sundowner, Chris Cresswell, Joey Cape and more. But seriously, NOFX at Thee Parkside! What a coup for this tiny but awesome venue.

Hip-hop royalty descends upon the bay this weekend when Atmosphere and Dilated Peoples take their world-beating verbal gymnastics to the Greek Theatre. Each group has had a fantastically unquantifiable run of success and influence in underground hip-hop’s diaspora — anytime you hear a hyper-intelligent turn of phrase spliced with cut-to-the-bone social commentary, there’s a good chance that rapper owes Atmosphere and/or Dilated Peoples a beer.